1. Field of the Invention
This utility model refers to a unit that, owing to its particular design and structural-technique features, eliminates the rear metal axle of a child""s tricycle since the (two) new axle bridges are integrated into the actual plastic body for mounting the rear wheels.
2. Description of Related Art
As the name suggests, children""s tricycles are vehicles that have one front wheel and two rear wheels that are connected by an axle. Said axle is normally made of metal and rests on two supports that are fixed to the chassis of the tricycle, and the wheels are mounted on the free ends of the axle by means of bushings, etc.
The purpose of this utility model is to create a unit that makes it possible to eliminate this metal axle and that is integrated into the plastic body of the tricycle itself. This will make it much simpler to mount the wheels on the body by eliminating bushings, reducing weight, and significantly decreasing the cost of the product.
The elimination of the metal axle, in addition to the advantages mentioned in the previous section, also provides other major advantages that are cited below and that help to make this utility model better conform to the standards of the I.Q.B. (Institute for the Quality of Toys and Articles for Children) and those of the INMETRO (National Institute of Metrology, Standardization, and Industrial Quality) which provide warnings regarding the presence of small parts that can be swallowed in products that are intended for children under the age of three, who constitute the majority of the users of these kinds of toys.
These additional advantages include the elimination of the risk of children swallowing small components (bushings, retaining pins, copilha); the elimination of sharp edges that may be present on the bridges of the metal axles; the elimination of the risk of peeling from the zinc bath or of the peeling of paint that may be present on the metal axles; and the elimination of any and all metal parts that can rust, including the metal axle itself.
To do this, the two axles that it takes to attach the wheels are molded together onto the lower ends of the supports fixed to the tricycle chassis, thereby eliminating the need for a metal axle.